RD TL358-100-RF in 357 magnum

[Jech]

The title says it all...anybody ever tried this combo?

I have a Ruger SP101 with a 2.25" bbl to blast these babies out of...I'm seating them to crimp in the top lube/crimp groove for an OAL of 1.560" give or take a few thou for case length variation. Powder selection will include whatever pistol powders I have on hand: Bullseye, W231, Unique, HS-6, Bluedot and H-110.

I cracked open Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook 4th edition to look for any loads that were vaguely similiar and found a 90gr Lyman LRN seated to 1.585" with 7.5gr/9.5gr of Bullseye for min/max. Another load listed is a Lee 105gr LSWC at the same length with 7.7/8.5gr listings for Bullseye. I was thinking about trying a starter charge of 7.5gr and working up towards 9.0gr and see how much/little the barrel leads.

Please chime in with your experiences and what you've tried!

P.S. my boolits are cast from an approximate 2 to 1 mix of range lead and wheelweights, they have all been waterquenched, sized to .358" and hit with two coats of Recluse 45/45/10. They shoot like a dream out of my S&W 380 Bodyguard.

[skeet1]

Sounds like fun, keep us posted. I think your choice of BE is good and maybe Unique would work as well or better in the mag case.

Ken

[357 Voodoo]

Jech I'm using the lee 105 for a fun little plinking round loaded over 4.5 of be for 900fps. I load in 357 cases using 38 loads. One of these days I will try the rd over the same.

happy shooting

[Centaur 1]

Jech, I've loaded them with 3.8 grains of BE in a .38 and they work great. I have been thinking about seeing how fast they'll go before they start leading the barrel.

What is your oal with this boolit in the .380? When I load to .938" like RD posts in his load data they work in my LCP, but in my daughters Bodyguard I have to shorten the cartridge to .880". I e-mailed RD and the max charge of Unique drops from 4.5 grains to 3.7 grains when the boolit is seated this deep.

[lwknight]

I have doubts about using blue dot or especially H-110 on a 100 grain bullet will work out for you.
I think that bullseye , unique and W231 will be your friends.
I'm not knowing about HS6.

I even tried WSF with 110 grain bulletsd in 38 cases and it was a total flop. The more powder I added , the slower the bullets went and velocities were all over the spectrum.

[Jech]

Thanks for all the replies so far. I tested out a range if 7.5gr to 9.2gr but it was a punishingly bright sunny day so my chronograph was completely useless. I saved about half of each of the 5 loads for later testing on an over cast day. I'm not holding my breath though. Oregon in August is usually desert condition. Sad face...

[tuckerdog]

boolit is too light for h-110 in my opinion unique or bullseye would be good, leaning toward unique. I put that s@#t under anything